Under is an evaluation of the prospects within the farm system of the Washington Nationals. Scouting studies had been compiled with data offered by trade sources in addition to my very own observations. That is the fifth 12 months we’re delineating between two anticipated aid roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see within the “place” column beneath: MIRP for multi-inning aid pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning aid pitchers. The ETAs listed typically correspond to the 12 months a participant must be added to the 40-man roster to keep away from being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Handbook changes are made the place they appear acceptable, however we use that as a rule of thumb.
A fast overview of what FV (Future Worth) means may be discovered right here. A a lot deeper overview may be discovered right here.
The entire ranked prospects beneath additionally seem on The Board, a useful resource the positioning affords that includes sortable scouting data for each group. It has extra particulars (and up to date TrackMan information from numerous sources) than this text and integrates each crew’s checklist so readers can evaluate prospects throughout farm programs. It may be discovered right here.
Different Prospects of Word
Grouped by sort and listed so as of choice inside every class.
Hit Software Questions
Sam Petersen, CF
Elijah Inexperienced, OF
Cayden Wallace, 2B/3B
Rafael Ramirez Jr., SS
Andrew Pinckney, OF
Maxwell Romero Jr., C
Petersen is a plus runner and above-average middle discipline defender who was Washington’s eighth rounder out of Iowa final 12 months. He has a 48% hard-hit fee up to now this season, however a 3rd of his at-bats have come throughout a rehab task in Florida, so take that with a wholesome grain of salt. His swing takes without end to enter the hitting zone and he’s usually late to the contact level, however the protection piece makes him a prospect. Inexperienced was placing out at a 40% clip but once more when the Nationals determined in mid-Could to demote him to rookie ball to completely rework his swing. A entrance workplace supply (not with Washington) texted me a rumor weeks in the past {that a} large SEC program was trying to court docket him for soccer. A number of 2024 accidents made Wallace, a former second spherical decide, robust to guage (indirect pressure, damaged rib, again points), however he hasn’t hit since he was acquired from Kansas Metropolis as a part of the Hunter Harvey commerce. This 12 months, theoretically wholesome, Wallace has struggled to catch as much as fastballs (he’s hitting .197 in opposition to them the final two years) and has been chase-prone. At peak, he appeared like a stable part-time nook participant, however proper now his bat seems actually gradual. Ramirez is a viable shortstop with common energy who got here from Cleveland within the Lane Thomas commerce. He struck out over 30% of the time final 12 months and hasn’t performed but in 2025 resulting from damage. Pinckney, a 6-foot-4 2023 draftee out of Alabama, is a plus runner with common energy and a 30 hit device. Romero is a 24-year-old lefty-hitting catcher with energy who’s placing out greater than 30% of the time for the second straight season (his first with Harrisburg).
Depth Relievers
Holden Powell, RHP
Daison Acosta, RHP
Junior Santos, RHP
A adorned school reliever, Powell has the second-most saves in UCLA historical past, was NCAA Stopper of the Yr as a sophomore, and was the nearer for Collegiate Workforce USA in 2019. He’s handled accidents (Powell has three 60-day IL stints since 2021), however he seems wholesome in 2025 and is poised to blow by way of his single-season excessive in innings, which was solely 37.2 getting into the 12 months. Powell hides his tailing 94 mph fastball properly and has an above-average mid-80s slider, however his arm stroke is lengthy and difficult to repeat, so he has had points throwing strikes sufficient to maintain him from the principle part of the checklist. When the Nats popped Acosta within the 2023 minor league Rule 5 draft, he had final made a prospect checklist in 2017 when he was a projectable GCL starter within the Mets system. Now he’s a wild reliever with an ideal splitter who has had hassle getting a foothold above Double-A resulting from 30-grade fastball command. Santos is a 6-foot-7, 250 pound righty who grew to become prospect well-known as a hard-throwing teenager within the Mets system, however his stuff plateaued within the mid-minors and didn’t tick up even when the Mets moved him to the bullpen. He joined the Nats on a minor league deal and is sitting 93-96 in a aid capability at Harrisburg.
DSL Hitters
Nauris De La Cruz, OF
Esnaider Vargas, RF
Adrian Tusen, MIF
De La Cruz, 17, is a lefty-hitting outfielder who swings fairly onerous for his measurement and has been robust to strike out up to now. Vargas and Tusen are a part of what I’d name the DSL’s second unit. They’re not getting as many reps as the opposite hitters and are most likely two-year DSL guys, however they’re each actually younger and fairly toolsy. Vargas has a few of the finest current bat pace on the roster, whereas Tusen is arguably probably the most projectable after Victor Hurtado.
Rookie Ball Arms
Marlon De La Cruz, RHP
Darrel Lunar, RHP
Yaiker Torrelles, RHP
Jose Sanchez, RHP
De La Cruz, 19, is a 6-foot-2 righty with a complicated pitchability basis. He’ll peak within the 95-97 mph vary relying on the outing and flash slider, however proper now that pitch is usually beneath common. De La Cruz is constructed properly and throws strikes; he’s a pleasant developmental sleeper. Lunar is a thin 19-year-old righty who’s the toughest thrower on the FCL roster (92-95, touching 97), although his heater performs down resulting from tailing motion and below-average command. Torrelles is an explosive little athlete producing practically seven toes of extension regardless of being 5-foot-11. He’s touched 97 within the DSL this 12 months in brief outings. His curveball is 20 mph slower than his heater and continues to be creating. A transformed outfielder, Sanchez is barely sitting within the higher 80s proper now, however his measurement and athletic substances are thrilling, as he’s a projectable 6-foot-3 with tremendous lengthy levers.
Depth Starters
Davian Garcia, RHP
Robert Cranz, RHP
Hyun-il Choi, RHP
Travis Sthele, RHP
Erik Tolman, LHP
Garcia was the Nats’ 2024 sixth rounder out of Florida Gulf Coast, an undersized righty with a brief stride and a excessive slot that produces a trick pitch splitter. He might finally be a slider-heavy lengthy reliever. Cranz was final 12 months’ seventh rounder out of Oklahoma State. The angle on his fastball is admittedly robust for hitters to match, and it’s producing a miss fee simply over 30% in A-ball up to now though it sits 91-92. If Cranz can discover a second above-average pitch (his breakers are at present taking part in like 40- and 45-grade choices), he’ll be an enormous league reliever. Drafted from the Dodgers within the minor league Rule 5, Choi is a Korean sidearm starter who deploys an east/west assault with cutters and tailing fastballs on the prime of the zone. He’s athletic and has really feel for location, however he solely sits 89-90 and resides within the depth starter expertise band. Sthele was a 2023 twelfth rounder out of Texas assigned to Excessive-A Wilmington. He’s an ultra-efficient strike-thrower with below-average stuff throughout the board. Tolman is a 26-year-old lefty out of ASU whose low-90s fastball/slider combo is likely to be sufficient for him to be a 3rd 40-man lefty. He’s had success as a swingman, however was solely not too long ago promoted to Wilmington.
System Overview
Properly, it has been an attention-grabbing 24 hours for this franchise, which fired common supervisor Mike Rizzo and supervisor Davey Martinez yesterday. Mike DeBartolo, previously senior VP and assistant GM, was named interim common supervisor. The change comes one week earlier than the MLB Draft, during which the Nationals have this 12 months’s first total decide. In baseball, the one that successfully turns within the card to make the ultimate determination as to who’s drafted varies; it isn’t all the time the GM or POBO, although usually instances within the first spherical (particularly on the very prime of the primary spherical) the pinnacle of the org, no matter their title, is concerned in that call. Chances are high that Nationals VP of novice scouting Danny Haas and senior director of novice scouting Brad Ciolek are extra intimately conversant in Washington’s choices at decide no. 1 than Rizzo was, however Rizzo was little doubt concerned within the means of speaking with brokers and possession concerning the determination, and now could be now not within the room. There’s continuity of thought right here — it’s not as if all the scouting studies collected underneath Rizzo walked out the door with him — however there are personnel dominoes falling at a really inconvenient time, which provides a level of issue to a course of the Nats type of need to nail.
The participant Washington selects first will most probably slot in at no. 3 on this system behind Sykora and Susana, as Crews has graduated. No person on this draft class can contact their mixture of upside and proximity, although Sykora’s early elimination from his final begin previous to checklist publication makes his scenario murkier. The Nats don’t have anything in the best way of comp picks on this 12 months’s draft, however that 1.1 bonus slot is so large that they may have the ability to get inventive and throw cash round within the later rounds anyway, although who is aware of whether or not the change at GM could have any influence on their stage of consolation with getting frisky. Washington has taken highschool gamers with hit device query marks within the early rounds over the past whereas (Brady Home, Elijah Inexperienced), with blended outcomes. It places them in play for Ethan Holliday (who had a mediocre 73% contact fee on the showcase circuit) with the primary decide.
This technique stays shy of common in most respects, however is unquestionably higher than it was a 12 months in the past. There are some indicators of life because it pertains to creating pitching. Final 12 months’s Nationals checklist had a league-low 12 pitchers on it. This 12 months, regardless of dropping some pitchers to commencement (Mitchell Parker, DJ Herz) in 2024, there are 18, together with a few guys who’re “arrow up” varieties inside a 12 months of being drafted. It’s a constructive signal for an org that should manufacture pitching from inside if the crew goes to compete with the Mets, Braves and Phillies, who all take pleasure in some mixture of economic and developmental would possibly.
The cornerstone of Washington’s rebuilding effort has been professional scouting. They nailed the Juan Soto commerce, which netted them James Wooden, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Jarlin Susana, and Robert Hassell III. The complete core of the massive league crew at this second comes from that commerce. Different offers, just like the Max Scherzer/Trea Turner commerce with Los Angeles, have been extra blended, and there isn’t an ideal role-playing contingent supporting Wooden, and so on. The way in which the crew has been taking part in this 12 months reveals they’re nonetheless removed from contending. The unique draft of this part went on to ask, “What’s an inexpensive deadline for this entrance workplace group to provide a very aggressive postseason roster?” I spitballed that the tip of the crew’s management window for Gore (post-2027) and Abrams (post-2028) was a pure cutoff, however I assume we now have the Lerner household’s reply.
Can they add at this 12 months’s deadline? They don’t have a lot in the best way of tradable gamers on expiring offers. Josh Bell’s and Amed Rosario’s underlying stats have been higher than their floor efficiency, and Kyle Finnegan was an All-Star final 12 months, although he has misplaced a tick of velo. However there isn’t a lot past that until the membership is fascinated about shifting Luis García Jr., who’s in his arb years and is a free agent after the 2027 season. It seems like they’d be promoting low on him, as García is extra gifted than his floor stats this 12 months.
Internationally, the Nats have had some very high-profile misses throughout the previous couple of years. Maybe it’s too early to name Cristhian Vaquero a miss, however contemplating what they laid out for him bonus-wise and the chance prices of doing so (it’s robust to have a sturdy signing class when one man will get virtually $5 million), issues aren’t going nice. Victor Hurtado is type of in the identical bucket, whereas Armando Cruz ($3.9 million in 2022) and Andy Acevedo ($1.2 million in 2023) are extra clearly cooked. There appears to have been a strategic shift right here, because the Nats unfold their bonus cash out throughout extra gamers in 2025 and have a reasonably enjoyable DSL group, with a number of place participant prospects famous above. The scuttlebutt within the worldwide scouting group is that, not less than for the following couple of years, Washington will make use of an analogous technique and keep away from giving anyone participant $3 million or extra.